BROCKTON – After years of fighting over a proposed Brockton power plant, it appears the final battle will be over a $68 million civil rights lawsuit.

Now that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has allowed the plant to be permitted but denied it the use of city drinking water for cooling, the developer is using the threat of that lawsuit against its opponents.

Last month, Mayor Bill Carpenter sent out a packet of confidential documents to the City Council detailing $307,066 spent to date on legal fees over the lawsuit. It also showed that the city could spend another $2 million on lawyers and experts taking the case to trial.

In the suit, Brockton Power Company LLC is also asking the presiding federal judge to require the city to enter into an agreement to sell its wastewater.

“The real issue is that the city has a huge problem in the form of a $68 million civil rights lawsuit,” Carpenter said.

Brockton attorney Lawrence Siskind said he believes the City Council should be negotiating a settlement. The council is named in the suit as a defendant, along with the city itself, the Planning Board and several former and current city officials.

“The costs are going to skyrocket now,” Siskind said. “It doesn’t make sense why we are not actively negotiating.”

Opponents say there is no point to negotiation, since they believe the developer has no case, evidenced by a lack of movement in court over the last year.

Several attorneys and defendants in the suit have said no depositions have been completed, and the court docket shows a series of pushed-back deadlines and rescheduled conferences.

The latest hearing, meant to provide the judge an update, was moved from July 29 to Sept. 16.

“In my view, it feels like the lawsuit should be dead,” said Veronica Eady, a vice president with the Conservation Law Foundation. “It’s a real shame when a corporation equates itself with a protected class that should be able to use a civil rights claim. That’s crazy and ridiculous.”

Carpenter said he believes the judge will tell both parties to prepare for trial when they meet in September.

“Our attorneys and experts say we have little chance to prevail,” the mayor said. “We are placed in a position to put residents in liability of tens of millions of dollars.”

But even if the developer were to succeed, forcing the city to pay $68 million, it remains a question whether the plant will be able to obtain the wastewater.

“They can’t force the city to give them the water, said Stop the Power attorney Paul Glickman.

Page 2 of 2 - He sees only one way for the developer to win over the city and get the water it needs.